


24-Hour Love Affair

by nitamar



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-26
Updated: 2015-12-26
Packaged: 2018-05-09 13:42:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5542088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nitamar/pseuds/nitamar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor and Jack agreed to have a 24 hour love affair. But would a Time Lord bail out?</p>
            </blockquote>





	24-Hour Love Affair

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Sorry it's a bit ansty. Happy ending I swear.  
> 2\. I haven't watched The Husbands of River Song when writing/posting this so don't know if it contradicts/coincides with anything in that episode.  
> 3\. The 24-hour story line came from a YA story I read when I was a wee girl. For some reason it came up to my mind and I really wanted to write it. All other ships would be waaaaay too angsty though. So these two felt the only right option.

The TARDIS wheezed and Jack looked up from his gadgets to stare.

It's not that he had developed an interest in technology. It's just now and then he found himself the only person around a couple hundred years to understand how something works and naturally, he became the person responsible for fixing it.

Before the TARDIS fully materialized, however, he came back to his common sense and quicly swept everything from his desk to a waiting chest beside it and closed the lid.

You never know when a Time Lord would arrive and judge whatever you were doing. Always be prepared.

His heart pounded a little as it did every time said Time Lord came for a visit.  
Which one would it be this time? It is a delicate dance, how each of the Doctor is to be approached. One that Jack cherishes and, if he is to say so himself, is excellent at.

Of course, some of the Doctor's incarnations are easier to love than others. And if he can have a say in things, he is waiting for one of the incarnations in particular.

He was certain that he had now developed the ability to tell which Doctor it is by the exterior of the TARDIS, but the Doctor made it quite clear, while puffing indignantly, that it is simple impossible. The exterior is always blue as it is. But Jack did overhear the Doctor grumbling while stroking the console "Stop giving him hints you are MY TARDIS!"

Jack smiled at the memory, but also with a sting in his heart. It had been a while since he saw the Eleventh Doctor. If he turned up he might seriously consider River's helpful advice to slap him. ("He deserves it. You know he does. Plus you need to give in to the urge to slap him now and then. " )

He looked as the TARDIS becomes more here with each wheeze, he would just act on his instinct, though deep down he knew whenever he saw the Doctor he would lost all control of his clear thinking. Yes he's that head-over-heels in love with him. And River just smiled her "Oh, I know. Aren't we all?" smile over the second glass of their second bottle.

With a final defining sound the TARDIS landed in his little make-shift workroom. Jack took a deep breath and will his heart to not beat so fast. Much as he can relate a cardiac arrest to a really really good orgasm, it would be bad manners to greet your love with being busy dying. 

It's him. It's really him. There was no mistaking it. It's the exact Doctor he'd been thinking of, and waiting for.

Jack crossed his arms and perched on his desk. Unlike with River the Doctor tend to visit him in a relatively straightforward manner. He can get different Doctors within a short period of time but with each of them, there was rarely an "where were we" moment. For this they have agreed to thank the TARDIS.  
So yes, Jack was going to confront him. And bring it on he would before the Doctor could have a chance to get talking.

But his determination was seriously threatened the moment the TARDIS door opened, and outcome the Doctor, bowtie and all. Yet instead of his usual bouncy self, Jack noticed he appeared it be stiff, as if every movement caused him great pain. 

"Doctor?" Jack called. He looked at his face carefully. It was as young as this regeneration had always been. But his eyes moved slow from looking at where he's stepping to Jack's face.

"Jack." The smile was still warm, it lit up his entire face and tucked on Jack's heart string, but it was one very, very tired. His voice a small whisper. 

"Resolve, Jack." He could hear River's voice in his head. "Drowning your sorrows every time after you spend time with someone your love is not a healthy relationship. You need to let him know what you think. He has a degree in taking people for granted. He's a Time Lord. Superiority is in his genes despite his own best efforts."

Jack forced his face to switch mid-expression from concern to cool.  
"You took your time." He said. Restraining himself from helping the Doctor as he stumbled a bit walking out of the TARDIS door.

The Doctor's eyes were wide, of innocence, of slight shock, of sadness, of "Oh Jack... please..."

But Jack's made some tough decisions in his life, and been through a lot of his own troubles. 

"Where have you been?" Jack pushed on, seeing he's not getting a response. 

"How long?" The Doctor asked instead, he appeared to be out of breath, and he supported himself by grabbing the handle of the TARDIS door. 

"This is the third planet I've worked up the ranks since we last met."

"Oh." The word was almost a sigh, as the Doctor's eyes dropped to the floor, not sure if he was ashamed or he no longer had the strength to keep his eyes up.

And Jack felt his heart ache.

"Doctor," He said quietly, trying to conceal the amount of heartbreak he was feeling. Why must they be like this? Constantly hurting each other whenever they were together.  
But he's keeping his dignity. That much he owed himself. For the amount of times he wept and bar-crawled in misery, a numb pain in his chest he's mad no dying and reviving could fix.

"Where didn't you visit me? Why don't you just do it?" The words were more confrontational than just questions. Maybe that was exactly how Jack intended them to be. "We've still got five minutes!" 

"Five minutes?" River had asked him, quite intrigued. "What's that about?"  
"It's a story I once read." Jack said rather sheepishly, "You know, when I was young and everything."  
There was a tease in River's eyes but she didn't comment. So Jack went on-  
"It was about two youngsters, who love each other, but could never really get on. They keep torturing each other like that. So one day they decided that, instead of going on hurting each other like that, they'd have a 24-hour love affair. Where basically, from now on they calculate all the amount of time they are together. And they will enjoy themselves, try their best to be the best to each other-"  
"Until it adds it up to twenty four hours?"  
"Yes. And after twenty four hours, they will break up and see each other no more."

River sighed. And fiddled with her glass. Jack did the same. And they were both silent for a while.

"Are you sure he didn't write that story?" She said finally.  
"The Doctor? Writing angsty Young Adult?"  
They both laughed at the idea and clanked their glasses so they can make progress on finishing the bottle.  
"And he agreed?" River said incredulously when she poured them another shot.  
"We were both running high on emotions at that time." Jack said, his eyes a bit misty from the drinking. "But yeah, he agreed. He'd come to visit, we'd have a bit of fun, the TARDIS counts the time for us. It worked. I'm just not spending the night on the TARDIS any more."  
"That's why I never agreed to travel with him. One psychopath per TARDIS. You are not a psychopath, of course." She added with a grin at Jack's face. "But you are ... you. And he doesn't like it when his superiority is not absolute. Like I said, Time Lord."

"Yeah, but he's a Time Lord! Plus even in the right direction and in the normal way we've still got five minutes left! Why doesn't he visit me any more? And the next him, never let me bring it up. Pretend it never happened. Pretend we never happened. And I didn't have the nerve to bring it up in case he stops visiting as well."  
Jack is aware he is like a love-sick teenager. But River understands. They both know the charm of the Doctor well enough, and would tear the world apart if he didn't ask. 

And now the Doctor, his Doctor, the Eleventh, stands in front of him, Jack feels anger and pity and sorrow and love all mixed up in his chest.  
“Doctor talk to me." He doesn't want their last five minutes to be like this. It goes against the very reason they set up this stupid thing. They agreed on it so they can enjoy the company of each other again. without letting all the other things get in the way. 

The Doctor looked up again, slowly, his eyes searching Jack's face, as if he had almost forgotten what he looked like - Jack suddenly realizes he had no idea how long it had been for the Doctor. He hadn't changed much, true, but that means nothing to the time passed for a Time Lord. 

"How long has it been for you, Doctor?" He asked. As his inside grew soft he got his second realization in two seconds that there was a painful distance between them - Jack perched on his desk, the Doctor at the TARDIS door. As if both of them had grown strange to the other, because of the amount of time between them.

It was the Doctor who moved first. Instead of answering, slowly and silently, he let go of the TARDIS door and walked towards Jack, nearly falling as soon as his leg made the first step. Without thinking Jack hurried forward to support him.  
"It's okay." The Doctor tried to smile it off, failing of course. "Still in the process of healing. Will be good as new in a bit." He said that while unashamedly leaning all of his weight on Jack.

"What did you do to yourself?" There was only concern in Jack's voice. Finally holding the Doctor in his arms he had sensed that something was very wrong with him. He was slightly shivering, and his body just... didn't feel as solid as it once was.  
With some effort the Doctor raised his head from where it was resting on Jack's shoulder and smiled at him. Jack had to smile back. It's impossible to look into those eyes and not fall in love all over again.  
"Dying. Jack. That's what I did to myself."  
"WHAT?"  
"It's okay." There was still some old bouncy Doctor left in the worn out body in his arms, but only because Jack knew that glint so well. "Dying to me means the same as to you." He chucked at his own words. "Well not exactly, for I will regenerate. But still."  
He used Jack as a walking stick and held himself up, yet still using him to support much of his weight.  
"Five minutes, eh?" He said, and gave Jack another big, sloppy smile. Then the light in his eyes almost switched off, nearly making Jack jump in alert.  
"Shh, it's okay." The Doctor smiled again. But this time it's an exhausted one, yet a true one as Jack had come to recognise after spending so much time with him. One without acting, without being the hero, the man with a plan. Jack always felt so proud when the Doctor smiled at him like that. It means he trust him, and he is himself with him.  
The Doctor hugged him then. His whole face burrowed in Jack's shoulder. His vibrated on his skin as the Doctor said,  
"I want those five minutes to be my last."

And they hugged like that, sharing a space with each other, silent, content, with Jack wanting more than anything to cry but knew he must keep strong, must keep the smile, because that's what their 24 hour agreement was for.

****  
From the open TARDIS door they can hear the machine making a sound, the sound it makes when they need reminding they need to go somewhere.  
"Doctor, stay with me. You can regenerate here. Or in the TARDIS. I can take care of you."  
"I can't." The Doctor said, pulling back so he was looking at Jack again. He appeared much healthier than moments before. Jack had learnt from a younger Eleven that this sometimes happens before regeneration takes place. And he never thought he'd feel so heartbroken about the Doctor getting healthier. "I have to go to Clara. Can't leave her on Trenzalore."  
"Trenzalore? Isn't that-"  
"Yes, yes. Long story. I will tell you next time. I will see you. And we will be without this stupid agreement."  
"But wiser from it." Jack added. For that's what he hoped.  
The Doctor nodded and smiled his sad smile, before untangling himself from Jack. But Jack was quicker. He pulled the Time Lord back and before he could protest kissed him. For luck. Or maybe... for he knew the man coming after wasn't a big fan of kissing or physical contact in general. Who knew what would be the next time he get to kiss the man he loves beyond time, beyond space?  
The Doctor was pushing him and Jack knew he was pushing his time. They are literally running out of it. Reluctantly Jack let go and admired the Doctor's blush no matter how many times they'd done that.  
"Oh and-" The Doctor's breathless but for all the right reasons this time. He looked at Jack urgently as he started to move to the TARDIS. In case Jack grabs him again. The old girl was now urging them to move on. "Tell me, the next me, when you see them that you'd seen me. So, you know, he'd know the 24 hour thing is over."  
"What? You mean you..."  
"Yeah, yeah. See you Jack." He gave him a final goofy grin and disappeared into the TARDIS.

Jack stared as the TARDIS disappeared, but the noise didn't fade away as another wheezing noise started almost immediately. Jack turned around, almost tripping over himself, in time to see another TARDIS materialize in the other end of the room. 

The door opened and the Doctor, with his grey hair and velvet jacket, stood at the door. He looked more than a little sheepish, and Jack truly appreciated how they are all the same man, despite their appearance, or personality, or what they say themselves. They are the same man. They are his Doctor.  
"So... just got told by the TARDIS it's ... safe?" He eyed Jack while the majority was his face was talking to the floor.

Jack grinned. A true mischievous grin he hadn't felt the spirit to pull in a long time. He walked around his desk to perch at the other end, crossing his arms. "Well, Doc, the old girl's never wrong."


End file.
